Episode 145: Asbestos

Asbestos was once heralded as the ideal building material—light, cheap, and heat resistant—until the health hazards of inhaling it were discovered. By then asbestos could be found in homes, schools, and buildings all over the country. On today's episode of Distillations we look at how two Pennsylvania towns are coping with the economic burden of remediating areas contaminated by asbestos. First CHF's Bob Kenworthy explains how Ambler residents have fought to contain the asbestos-laden land left behind by a shuttered manufacturing plant. Then producer Larkin Page-Jacobs visits a Pittsburgh high school that was once an architectural marvel and now sits abandoned due to asbestos.